Shirley Toulson - A Bio Sketch

Shirley Toulson was born on 20th May 1924 in Henley-on-Thames, England as the daughter of Douglas Horsfall Dixon and Marjorie Brown. She had a huge passion on writing and was greatly influenced y her father who was a writer too. She secured a B.A on Literature from Brockenhurst College in London in the year 1953. Shortly, she took writing as career but also served as the editor for many magazines in meantime. She married Alan Brownjohn on 6th February 1960. They had three children - Janet Sayers, Ian Toulson and Steven brownjohn. ut after nine years they divorced on March 1969. Celtic Christianity influenced her greatly that most of her major works like "Celtic Alternative" in 1987 and "Celtic Year" in 1993 were on that topic. But these works indeed made her more famous. 


HER WORKS:

• Shadows in an Orchard (poems), Scorpion Press, 1960.
• Circumcision's Not Such a Bad Thing after All and Other Poems, Keepsake Press, 1970.
• All Right, Auden, I Know You're There: A Quick Thought (poems), Offcut Press, 1970.
• For a Double Time (poems), Sceptre Press, 1970.
• The Fault, Dear Brutus: A Zodiac of Sonnets, Keepsake Press, 1972.
• Education in Britain, M. Evans, 1974.
• Farm Museums and Farm Parks, Shire Publications, 1977.
• (With Fay Godwin) Drovers' Roads of Wales, Wildwood House, 1977.
• (With John Loveday) Bones and Angels (poems), Mid-Day Publications, 1978.
• East Anglia: Walking the Leylines and Ancient Tracks, Wildwood House, 1979.
• The Drovers, Shire Publications, 1980.
• Derbyshire: Exploring the Ancient Tracks and Mysteries of Mercia, Wildwood House, 1980.
• The Winter Solstice, Jill Norman & Hobhouse, 1981.
• The Moors of the Southwest, Hutchinson, Volume 1, 1983, Volume 2, 1984.
• The Mendip Hills: A Threatened Landscape, Gollancz, 1984.
• Celtic Journeys, Scotland and the North of England, Hutchinson, 1985.
• The Celtic Alternative, Century Hutchinson, 1987.
• Walking Round Wales: The Giraldus Journey, Michael Joseph, 1988.
• The Companion Guide to Devon, Harper/Collins, 1991.
• The Celtic Year, Element (Rockport, MA), 1993.
• Somerset, with Bath and Bristol, foreword by Christopher Hibbert, Pimlico (London, England), 1995. 

MAGAZINES WHICH SHE WORKED FOR:

• The Remind-Me Hat and Other Stories (juvenile), M. Evans, 1973.
• Dickens, S. Low, 1977.
• Kipling, S. Low, 1977.
• Milton, S. Low, 1977.
• Shakespeare, S. Low, 1977.